Aug 31, 2011

Around the NHL: Wade Belak Found Dead

In yet even more sad news for the NHL, former enforcer Wade Belak was found dead this morning in his downtown Toronto condo. Belak is the third NHL enforcer this year to have passed away, along with Rick Rypien and Derek Boogaard, as well as Bob Probert last year.

AT: This has gotten to the point where the NHL needs to make some drastic changes. It is coming to a point where players are literally dropping like flies, and being that most are enforcers it is natural to assume a lot of it is due to blunt force head trauma that was sustained over the course of their careers. As both Carey and I stated, this is no reason to ban fighting from the NHL, but clearly something has to be done to stop the rampant head injuries. You would have figured something drastic would have been done when the face of the NHL was said to be still having headaches and may not be ready for the season, but this is someone's life we're talking about at this point.

What exactly can the NHL do? I'm a 19 year old college student so I can not possibly tell you the answer to that. However, the NHL has the resources to find a solution to this, and should do so immediately for the sake of their players, and for the sake of their PR at this point. My thoughts go out to the Belak family and to his friends and associates on all of the teams he played with.